Fritillaria-2008

[Maggi Young]

Well, I said those pics would be the last ones this year of Fritillaria, but I have to show you this one of F. purdyi from yesterday.

And very nice it is, too, Magnar.  One of the most shiny flowers!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great show Magnar !
Wonderful photography too (as always) ! 

[Lesley Cox]

Would someone please give an identification for this fritillaria which I bought 15 years ago from Potterton and Martin (as it was then), as F. sibthorpiana, which it isn't. (see page 1 of this thread and below, my own sibthorpiana which has a single basal leaf wrapped around the stem and only one other leaf half way up the stem.

Going from Pratt and Jefferson-Brown's book, the only species it could be is F. euboeica. It has two broad basal leaves, a leaf half way up the stem, very erect and with a twist, and an upright leaf at the back of the flower. The inside of the flower has green nectaries and as can be seen in these pics, the yellow colour is veined with green.

However, far from the "glorious" bright yellow of P and J-B, the flower is greenish yellow, and the stigma is not divided distinctly into three, but is made up of 3 compact pinhead-sized knobs, very close together. In one pic the flower appears to be double but isn't, it is just two flowers which have fused together to make one, an aberration. There are two sets of sigma/anthers and two leaves at the back of the fused flowers.

[johnw]

my own sibthorpiana which has a single basal leaf wrapped around the stem and only one other leaf half way up the stem.

What a beauty it is!

johnw

[Ian Y]

Lesley
From what you are showing I think your frit is carica.
Fritillaria carica is very variable and from the plants I grow seems to merge with F. pinardii.

[Gerry Webster]

Lesley - I'm inclined to agree with Ian, F. carica. Your pics & description agree quite well with Rix's description in Flora of Turkey.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Ian and Gerry, I'll go with that then, though the flower stems DO have a topknot leaf where P and J-B say not. However, I've found that book to be quite inconsistent in a number of areas. I'd prefer to trust you both, than them in fact.

My other carica is this one so you can see why I didn't recognise one from the other.

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, since the stem with the topknot is the stem with the fused flowers, I would suggest that this too was an aberration.

[Lesley Cox]

You could well be right Maggi. It hasn't flowered for about 4 years so I don't remember what happened last time. I'll keep a better watch for next time, hopefully before 2012!

If it's carica, it might be worth cross-pollinating with the other little one. Hope springs eternal as the poet says.

[Maggi Young]

A little tickling action with the brush in hopes of pollination with the other couldn't hurt, anyway 

[fermi de Sousa]

Thank you Ian and Gerry, I'll go with that then, though the flower stems DO have a topknot leaf where P and J-B say not. However, I've found that book to be quite inconsistent in a number of areas. I'd prefer to trust you both, than them in fact.

My other carica is this one so you can see why I didn't recognise one from the other.

Hi Lesley,
is this the F. carica you tried to post to the September in SH thread? Also grown from seed from MH?
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Yes Fermi. it is. I must get back to do something about that. Not enough hours, in spite of daylight saving.